Latest revision as of 16:21, 1 November 2019

Editor's Note: On September 12, 2019, Hidden City Philadelphia reported, "The Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent officially closed to the public last summer."

Description: The Philadelphia History Museum engages Philadelphians and regional visitors with its extraordinary collections that reflect Philadelphia’s rich history and the diversity of its people and their neighborhoods through exhibitions, educational programs and technology which explore the past to better understand the present.

Founded in 1938 and opened to the public in 1941, the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent is the city history museum of Philadelphia. The Museum is housed in an elegant Greek-Revival structure, which served as the home of the Franklin Institute from 1826 to 1933. It was designed by John Haviland, one of the country’s foremost architects (his work in Philadelphia includes the University of the Arts' Hamilton Hall at Broad and Pine streets and the imposing Eastern State Penitentiary in the city’s Fairmount section).

The Atwater Kent Museum was formally dedicated on April 19, 1941. Renamed the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent in 2010, the museum holds a collection of Philadelphia history composed of over 100,000 objects.